Cats Find a Second-Half Zone
John Calipari said it wouldn’t take long for adversity to strike for his young team.
That proved to be true – with Utah Valley pouncing on UK and grabbing a double-digit lead early in the second half – but not even the prescient Coach Cal could have guessed how the Wildcats would overcome it.
“We went zone and it kind of got us going,” Calipari said.
Down 37-25 after a Utah Valley and-one 34 seconds after halftime, UK turned to a 2-3 zone defense – a rare sight in the Calipari era – to spur an 18-0 run. The Cats would never trail again en route to a 73-63 season-opening victory.
“That’s what we should use the zone for, but we, we had too many guys that were just getting beat on the dribble,” Calipari said. “Too many guys out of position. But that’s what happens when you have all freshmen and a couple sophomores. That’s exactly what you see.”
Calipari said he’s gone entire seasons without calling for a zone defense once, which surely left many in Rupp Arena surprised when he did on Friday night. One person who wasn’t, however, was UK’s leading scorer.
“I said it in preseason: I think we’re a really good zone team,” said Hamidou Diallo, who scored 18 points. “We’re really long and athletic, so we can cover multiple spots. And that’s what we went to and you see what happens when we did that.”
The zone disrupted a Utah Valley team that hadn’t spent much time practicing against the defense at this early point in the season. UK forced five turnovers during the outburst, leading to 11 points, all scored within 10 seconds of the change of possession. That helped kick-start a UK offense that shot 21.9 percent in the first half and missed its last 15 field-goal tries before halftime.
“Early in the year he told us that he’s never really used zone, but he said we’re so long and athletic that he’s going to have to,” said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 13 points, four assists and four steals. “You guys saw what it did today. It really helped.”
The fact that the zone looks like a viable option going forward is a positive, but Coach Cal’s biggest takeaway from UK’s debut is the way the Cats responded to early struggles.
“The start was kind of expected,” Calipari said. “We shot 21 percent in the first half and at halftime I said, this is good for us, let’s see who we are. Let’s see who is willing to fight.”
Calipari found of a group of five players – Gilgeous-Alexander, Diallo, Wenyen Gabriel, Kevin Knox and Nick Richards – who proved they were up for the challenge. It just so happened they were playing zone while they did it.
“I loved what I saw,” Calipari said. “That we fought. I loved the group that fought. That created that gap. But again, this is going to be how we play. Do we play zone? How do we play man-to-man? Is this a grind-it-out kind of team? Is it a post-up team? Maybe a post-up team.”
At this early point in the season, there are still far more questions than answers. One thing that is for sure is that Coach Cal is willing to do anything and everything to put his team in the best possible position to win. Even if that means playing more zone.
“Whatever this team needs, I’m going to have to do,” Coach Cal said. “We’re young, we’re long, there’s just so much we have to do and part of this early is going to be about survival. We survived this game.”
